Released hostage Bar Kuperstein has recounted a deeply disturbing episode from his time in Hamas captivity, describing a period of intense violence that he says was triggered by developments outside the prison.

In an interview with Yisroel Hayom, Kuperstein said that after footage surfaced from the Sde Teiman base allegedly showing abuse of a Hamas detainee by the Force 100 prison intervention unit, their captors reacted with fury. According to him, they told the hostages that the video was spreading worldwide and warned, “Now you will suffer,” before launching into severe beatings. The captives were also forced to watch footage depicting assaults on prisoners.

“We couldn’t understand how videos that harm us could be published,” Kuperstein recalled. “It was a horrible period. They would beat us until they were exhausted, then say, ‘We’ll be back tomorrow.’ We spent nights unable to sleep from fear. This went on for days.”

Kuperstein said that roughly a week later, the hostages noticed lights in the distance and began reciting tefillos, including Shema Yisrael and Shir LaMa’alos, fearing that something worse was imminent. He and another hostage, Yosef Chaim Ochana, were abruptly removed, blindfolded, and prevented from speaking. “You think to yourself, after a week of beatings, this is it. They’re going to execute us, and no one will ever know,” he said.

He then described the next stage of the ordeal in graphic terms. Upon being brought into a room, the two were struck immediately, knocked to the floor, kicked, dragged, and repeatedly beaten. Their legs were fastened to iron bars, and their captors declared they would make them “feel on their own bodies” what they claimed had been done to their own prisoners. Kuperstein said he first heard Ochana crying out before the attackers turned their attention to him, striking his legs again and again with what seemed to be metal objects.

The beating continued until Kuperstein lost consciousness, leaving him with broken toes. He and Ohana were later forced to make their way back through a tunnel to the area where the other hostages were being held, a slow and painful journey that lasted several minutes.

Other captives, including Ohad Ben Ami, Elkana Bohbot, Segev Kalfon, and Maxim Herkin, were stunned when they saw their condition. “It was one of the hardest moments in captivity,” Kuperstein said.

Kuperstein added that the abuse finally stopped only after Ben Ami, the oldest of the group, broke down crying and begged their captors to stop.